My niece and nephew made a little animation recently using characters they made out of play-do, they photographed the movement with an old digital camera and then played the result with a shareware app (basically just a screen-saver that showed the pic's in sequence).

They had made a cartoon ... and they made it in only a couple of days! A ten and 8 yr. old made a cartoon as easily as a finger painting.

So, that's the reason for the 'paintbrushes and clay' subject, they're both simple tools available to anyone who's interested in using them. I'm curious about any thoughts you might have on things like digital cameras and computers as artistic tools, are they like a pencil yet? I was just suprised by how easily these guys used them and i'm curious what everyone thinks about their artistic potential (computers, digital cameras, scanners, the internet, etc.).

Any thoughts?

I think the Internet will be to art and animation what the printing press was for literature...

Check out <a href="www.homestarrunner.com">
www.homestarrunner.com</a>. This is an animation site with mucho content that is totally free to watch. I think this is the shape of the future... except for the running shoes and no arms and propeller beanie, but otherwise yeah.

Check out Strong Bad Email... particularly the one called "techno". Heh.

Just how smart are your niece and nephew?.......

Post a picture from the little dudes! Then we can see, in some small way, the future of artistic endeavour.

Obviously I think they're the most perfect, brilliant kids ever in the history of humanity but every uncle thinks that. When I try to look at them realistically they're just regular kids. It's not as if they did it alone from the start, I introduced them to the tools and showed how they can be used but after that I just let them run with it. Since they can see the results so quickly they took to it instantly.

Thats actually what got me thinking to start this thread. my nefew is a movie freak, he loves the process and he declared a few weeks ago that he wanted to make a movie. Then my sister told me (sounding a bit worried) that he really thinks he can make a real movie, like he expects to see it in theaters. It occured to me that while his wish for theaters was a bit premature he could actually 'release' what ever he makes on the net. So we're working on a little home page for him now. I just couldn't stop thinking how cool that was and how easily it could be done, not just the web page but the whole process, finally! with a little instruction even a child can do this stuff and to me thats when these gadgets shifted from being just some mysterious technology (only useable with extensive training) to an actual tool, like a paintbrush or a screwdriver.

I honestly think we're seeing the start of a golden age for people who want to create and have what they make actually seen by others. It's exciting.


oh ya, regarding showing their stuff, I'll post the home page when it's up if you'd like.

I'm curious about any thoughts you might have on things like digital cameras and computers as artistic tools, are they like a pencil yet? Not until you can find them at the Dollar Tree for a dollar. :D

Seriously, though, they've got a ways to go in terms of simplification and ease of use. There's still kind of a steep learning curve for them--they all assume that you know certain basic things about how they operate. The manuals for both items explain hardly anything about the rock-bottom basics.

Ever get a look at some of those "Computers for Seniors" Continuing Ed courses? They start out with stuff like, "This is the mouse. This is the mouse pointer. This is how you click the mouse. This is how you drag something with the mouse." This is stuff that kindergartners turned loose with a classroom "computer activity" ("When your workbook is all done, you may have a turn at Word Munchers...") pick up on their own, automatically, in about 5 seconds. But Grandma didn't have computers when she was in kindergarten, and her new computer didn't come with instructions for things like, "Where's the Any Key?" The manufacturer assumes she knows what "Press any key to continue" means.

So as soon as digital art mediums get so ubiquitous (which means "cheap" and "easy to learn to use") that they're being featured regularly as elementary school "special activities" like tempera paints and modeling clay, and when Grandma can pick up a paint program at Circuit City and take it home and have a Thomas Kinkade knockoff finished by suppertime, then they'll be "like a pencil".

Computers are good at the things that computers do. Unfortunately artistic creation isn't one of them, as contemporary mass culture illustrates perfectly. Twenty years in the music biz and I'm completely convinced that computers are a disaster for musical creation and appreciation, especially in schools. Don't believe all that educational/creative marketing b-s. Computers are good at copying things that have been created on computers.

I agree Iris, truely ubiquitous computers are still far away but to me when kids can use these things so easily (easily in contrast to 10 years ago, five even), we're approaching a special time in the history of creativity. Perhaps asking if its a pencil yet was a bit of a stretch clearly, it isn't. They're still too expensive and cumbersome but the important thing is it isn't insurmountably so anymore, ANYONE, if they apply some effort (like anything) can access and use them. Perhaps the elderly will have a harder time of it but that will always be the case with new things, I think its when the kids can do it that we're really getting somewhere.

just my opinion tho.

Computers are good at the things that computers do. Unfortunately artistic creation isn't one of them, as contemporary mass culture illustrates perfectly. Twenty years in the music biz and I'm completely convinced that computers are a disaster for musical creation and appreciation, especially in schools. Don't believe all that educational/creative marketing b-s. Computers are good at copying things that have been created on computers.

I agree that if one relys on a computer to create something it'll be crap, but ask a paintbrush or piano to create and they won't do much either - they'll just sit there, as is the case with any tool.

I was curious about everyones thoughts on them as tools, not creators. If someone makes artistic trash using a computer it isn't the computers fault its garbage, it's because they have either no talent, training or both.

Well, I still think a pencil is 2,000 times (exactly) more creative as a tool than a computer. A computer is a straightjacket, it says do it my way or else.

Do you have some examples of notable artistic achievements due to computers? I'm struggling to think of one at the moment.

Hmm, for those expert enough to use computers (the mouse, in partcular), whatever they use can help them create good art, while for those who aren't as good, scanned pencil-works will do just fine for digital art.

Canute... you ever use an art program like Adobe Photoshop or the Gimp?

It's true that people produce a lot of similar looking art with them, as with examples like Image Comics and their "gradient fill" era... but the reason why that's so prevalent is because it's really easy.

If you actually get to it and try to make original and creative artwork with a computer program it's not much different from other media, although it does confer a few advantages like layering. It's not so restrictive, particularly not if you can combine it with traditional media by way of a scanner. (Since most people have some media that they like more than others, more media to work with is generally better.)

Yeah ok, I'm being a but one sided. But I've spent a lot of time working on social/educational 'creative' technology initiatives as well as using the stuff. My vote's definitely for the pencil, the paintbrush and the clay, all three of which require a physical involvement in the creative process.

I understand what you mean. There's an additional point, however, that of distribution.

Two kids who draw a picture with crayons can stick it on their fridge.

If they scan the picture into their computer and put it on their website, every person in the world that has a net connection can probably see it.

Same picture - different distribution. My point is not that the pencil is obsolete, but that it is now easy to produce media that were quite difficult before - like animated shorts, for instance - and provide them for the viewing of the public. Some people who do this don't even charge money for viewing... although it's not free for them anymore if too many people watch their cartoon, 'cause of bandwidth problems. That problem hasn't been worked out yet. (TINSTAAFL).

Yes, but does this increase the quality of creative content in our culture, or is it just so easy to do that anyone can produce and distribute their creative efforts before they have anything worth saying? I see the downside, you see the upside. I think we're probably both right.

Canute, you asked : "Yes, but does this increase the quality of creative content in our culture, or is it just so easy to do that anyone can produce and distribute their creative efforts before they have anything worth saying?"

I think it's both. When I started out in graphic design computers were just coming in as a common thing and the industry was scrambling, suddenly anyone could cobble together their own logo's, advertizing, letterheads, etc. and do it really cheaply. My boss was sure this would not only destroy our industry but flood the market with REALLY terrible stuff. He was right in the sense that the market is flooded with really terrible stuff but on the otherhand companies learned quickly that if you want qualty you still need an artist and hiring a chimp to punch keys won't give you that, in a way it made the need for actual proffessionals even more clear.

I guess my point is that computers will not kill art, it just allows more people to dabble in and distribute it ... how can that be bad? Sure we have to suffer through more garbage than ever but there is also more of the really good stuff available so I think it's a fair trade.

just my opinion tho.

The volume of garbage will definitely increase, but will probably remain fixed at the same percentage of the total material. There will be more passable/good/great art as well, so why worry?